Many of council’s male employees are set to get an early Christmas present after South Tyneside Council was found guilty of discriminating against male employees in low paid jobs .

As a result of yesterday’s landmark ruling more than 12,000 men across the UK won the right to bring equal pay claims against their employers and the bill for these discriminatory practices will run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

In a test case, 300 men working as care assistants, caretakers, drivers and leisure attendants lodged discrimination claims against South Tyneside, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough Borough Councils.

Their claim was based on what they say are discriminatory bonuses paid to male workers in better paid jobs, such as gardeners and refuse collectors.

The men lodged their claims at the same time as those by women in low-paid jobs who were also claiming that the bonuses were discriminatory. The women succeeded in their claims and were offered financial settlements but the men had not and continued to be paid less both than the better paid men, and also the women.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the men should have been offered the same back pay as the women.

Mr Justice Underhill, president of the tribunal, said: “The case where men and women do the same job but receive different rates of pay is the paradigm of the kind of situation which the Act was intended to prevent: how would it seem if – unusually, but not impossibly – the roles were reversed and the ‘piggyback’ claimants were not men but women?”

After the ruling, Yvette Genn, a barrister who specialises in equal pay law said: “This is an important decision as it demonstrates that equal pay laws can be applied not only by women who compare themselves with men, but also by men who are comparing themselves with better paid men. Even though women historically have received lower pay than their male counterparts, it is too often forgotten that the law applies equally to men as it does to women.”

Mr Monkey reckons local solicitors will be inundated with claims for equal pay by men who have worked for or are still working for South Tyneside Council – they’ve got nothing to lose especially as any legal fees they incur will have to be picked by the council.

IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A CLAIM IT’S WORTH TALKING TO A SOLICITOR AS WELL AS THE UNION – REMEMBER UNION OFFICIALS ARE VERY FRIENDLY WITH COUNCILLORS AND COUNCIL OFFICERS AND MAY NOT PUT YOUR INTERESTS FIRST.

It seems that the council’s chief executive, Irene Lucas knew the writing was on the wall and is jumping ship before the chickens come home to roost .

Apparently South Tyneside council’s education department , the headmaster and the school’s governors are covering up some of the school’s failings who with the help of the council’s propaganda office are telling parents via the Shields Gazette Labour Gazetteer what a wonderful and high achieving establishment Jarrow School is.

The reality is that the Jarrow School is seriously failing many pupils year on year since the present inexperienced Head took over in 2005.

The most important GCSEs for Maths and English have dropped to 23% this year, yet the Lead member for Education, Jim ‘on the buses’ Foreman congratulated the school in the local snooze papaer for improving results!

What they did’nt mention was that the GCSEs which have improved are of no serious value and include ones such as cookery and silly subjects which the children CANNOT FAIL

The Council is allowing this incompetent Head to hide behind these results instead of taking action for the severe decline in the important GCSEs.

A quick look at OFSTED’s website will confirm that the current Head’s previous School, Congleton High School in Cheshire received a terrible report 18 months before he got the job at Jarrow School, bearing in mind Jarrow School was in a very poor state at the time the Council were duty bound to check this persons previous experience and Headships they clearly did not and panicked to appoint somebody much to the detriment of the pupils for the past 4 years.

The Headmaster loves appearing in the local snooze paper and was recently bragging that he had been invited to London by the SSAT (Specialist Schools and academies Trust ) for his GCSE results, it was hypocritical of him to have the neck to turn up at this event given the school’s true achievements.

Mr Monkey has learned that a major restructure of Neighbourhood Services is being held up by the ego of one of the Heads of Service.

The indiviual concerned is refusing to compromise and wants the lion’s share of the services being left without a head of service when Sylvia Brown leaves in the next couple of weeks. He’s been going over the head of his boss, Executive Director Fiona Brown and is trying to sweet talk Irene Lucas in to giving him what he wants.

This delay is leaving hundreds of staff unsure where they’re going to be working come 1st April, or indeed if they have a job – many of them are on fixed term contracts. These discussions have been going on since December, but are consistently being held up by this egotistical head of service.

The person in question also has a track record of putting his names on reports and documents he’s had nothing to do with and in creating ever more ridiculous job titles for himself to feed his petty ego.

Mr Monkey will reveal the identity of this despised individual in the coming days.

Last month Mr Monkey exclusively revealed that council staff were set to pay for parking CLICK HERE.

It’s now been confirmed that staff who are being transferred to Wouldhave House will have to pay for parking and they’re not happy about the prospect of having to pay for parking like the rest of us because they’ve got away with it for so long.

Angry staff claim they’re worried about car security and the possible negative impact of hundreds of staff trying to find spaces in the town centre, where parking is extremely limited, possibly forcing staff to use public transport while carrying out official duties.

Mr Monkey has no sympathy with any of them and here’s why:

the borough’s car parks are amongst the safest in the country – that’s what councillor Clare the lead member with responsibility for car park claims.

for years, the car parks have been labelled safe for the rest of us, so why the sudden concern?

car parks are regularly patrolled up until 11pm by the council’s enforcement contractor, Apcoa.

what about all the empty spaces at the Customs House, Mill Dam and Mile End Rd car parks. The old Asda car park will also be open to the public.

what’s wrong with using public transport, tens of thousands of people across the region rely on it everyday.

ever thought of using pool cars for official duties?

Mr Monkey reckons that council staff have come up with some pretty shit excuses when it’s clear that all they’re really bothered about is the cost.

Perhaps staff should use some of the savings from thier new BT broadband package to pay for thier parking. Apparently council staff transferring to BT will get broadband for just £1 a month.

Mr Monkey would like to leave the last word to the Patron Slut of Sailors who said, “”I’m absolutely mystified as to where these council workers are going to park”.

Perhaps she and her stupid colleagues in the Labour party should have thought about this before signing on the dotted line and giving BT the green light to shaft council employees.

Seems councillor Michael Clare’ obsession with recycling has now spread to the council’s press office.

Mr Monkey has noticed that ever since Miss Piggy, aka Iain Malcolm grabbed control of the council from Waggott the council has been recycling old policies and press releases in an attempt to look busy and con the residents of the borough in to believing that he’s actually doing something.

Mr Monkey nearly choked on his peanuts when he saw this blatant con by Miss Piggy and his stooges. CLICK HERE.

But the piece de resistance has got to be this comment attributed to Mr Tits, aka councillor Alan Kerr,

“The Council is working hard to make its services more flexible and accessible to customers. Our easy to use website is an excellent resource and shows agendas and minutes for all major committees. Clicking on council agendas is a great way for local people to keep in touch with the decisions that affect their everyday lives from planning issues to refuse collections.”

Anyone who knows this dirty old bastard will tell you he couldn’t of dreamt this statement up even if Pamela Anderson was giving him a tit wank – the letch is not capable of spewing this shit.

Mr Monkey can confirm that this press release is nothing more than an attempt to fuck us and just shows the contempt this council has for the residents of South Tyneside.

For the record committee papers, agendas, reports and minutes have been available on line since 2002 so this press release is nothing more than a con.

Mr Monkey can’t wait to see what Mr Dumpy, aka Papa John Szymanski does with this press release given the fact that his obedient lackeys reporters have been using the council’s on-line links to access committee papers etc for the last 5 years.

EXCLUSIVE: Mr Monkey can exclusively reveal that South Tyneside Council is to start charging it’s employees to park in it’s staff car parks.

At present town hall staff can park for free, Monday – Friday in Winchester Street and Claypath Lane car parks, but all this is about to stop.

Mr Monkey has learned that from April, staff who want to use these ‘reserved’ car parks will be need to buy a permit at an annual cost of £365. This will allow them to park in these car parks, Monday to Friday, but they’ll need to pay extra for Saturdays and Sundays.

Staff are outraged by this latest Malcolm inspired move and feel they’re being used as pawns to justify ever increasing parking charges.

EXCLUSIVE: Seems executive officers of South Tyneside Council have seen the writing on the wall and jumping ship whilst they still can.

Yesterday Mr Monkey brought readers news about why The Head of Adult Services, Caroline Thomas was forced to go unexpectedly left by ‘mutual consent’ – although her union says something different – and joined the ever growing list of officers who appear to want nothing more to do with South Tyneside Council.

Mr Monkey can now reveal that another Head of Service is set to escape Irene’s clutches leave. Peter Fanning who is Head of Organisational Development and People has agreed to an early retirement package and will leave the authority shortly.

Mr Fanning was heavily involved in the BT Strategic Partnership which resulted in a significant number of council employees being ‘transferred’ to BT in October. This included most of his team and Mr Monkey can’t help wondering why he did’nt join them.

Given South Tyneside Council’s track record, it wouldn’t surprise Mr Monkey if some kind of deal wasn’t put in place before the BT Strategic Partnership went live which meant that Mr Fanning would not be transferred (to reduce costs) but would effectively be paid off. This would leave him free to join BT or Tech Mahindra on a part time or even consultancy basis .. this way he gets 2 bites of the cherry.